Problems with Zafira diesel

the non starting is typical of the vectra problem with the spill pipes. The oil, I don't know, but I do know they hold a lot, so did it get filled properly when serviced? Even when off the stick there can still be enough to keep it lubed, so I wouldn't panic about that, and slightly low oil (1 litre) will not effect starting. Cold weather and an old battery will though.

Mrcheerful

My wife took the car into the Vauxhall garage this afternoon. They checked the oil and said there was about 1 litre too much in there and had to drain it. Who knows what the RAC man was thinking... They checked over the car for about 90 minutes, but couldn't find anything wrong. However, I got the impression that checking the car just means plugging their diagnostic kit into our engine management system. They said to bring the car back in a couple of days, so I'll see if they can check the spill pipes and injector seals then.

The DTI engines are very tricky to oil-dip properly as it takes *ages* for all the oil to return to the sump- typically 40 or more mins.

Over-filling is very common.

Low oil on the DTI also causes problems with the vacuum pump and engine controls, reuslting in limp home mode and strange drivability problems.

Tim..

It does sound like a spill pipe issue, but I would of expected it not to start from cold either. But I'd certainly be checking the spill pipes, as at 3 year old, they're probably starting to perish anyway. It could be that they were disturbed enough during the service for them to now fail.

Definately replace the spill pipes anyhow to rule them out, less than £10, but I wouldnt blame perished spill pipes for a no-warm start.

Tim..

Having just read through it again, the black smoke is strange. If it was the spill pipes, the engine would just spin over before starting in a cloud of white smoke.

Could be a failed EGR valve, which would give those symptoms, but I've never personally seen one fail on that engine, and I would also expect some driveability issues. Unless it's the later engine with the electric watercooled EGR valve, but they normally register numerous fault codes should they fail (and I don't think the later engine was fitted to zafiras).

Well, a different failure today. It's been ok since the last trip to the garage. Today, it started ok. Drove to the shops. Started ok again, pulled onto a dual carriageway, a bit juddery, then the revs just died. I managed to pull in safely luckily. The engine didn't ever cut out and still no dashboard lights, but now the car starts fine and idles, but when you put your foot on the accelerator, nothing happens

- no revs.

RAC towed me back to the Vauxhall garage. No service people there on Sunday, but there was the sales guy who has been trying to flog us a new car for a few weeks! At least this time there is an obvious failure somewhere, so even Vauxhall should be able to find it.

Does the recent history of poor starting and today's loss of revs point to an obvious solution?

Well, a different failure today. It's been ok since the last trip to the garage. Today, it started ok. Drove to the shops. Started ok again, pulled onto a dual carriageway, a bit juddery, then the revs just died. I managed to pull in safely luckily. The engine didn't ever cut out and still no dashboard lights, but now the car starts fine and idles, but when you put your foot on the accelerator, nothing happens

- no revs.

RAC towed me back to the Vauxhall garage. No service people there on Sunday, but there was the sales guy who has been trying to flog us a new car for a few weeks! At least this time there is an obvious failure somewhere, so even Vauxhall should be able to find it.

Does the recent history of poor starting and today's loss of revs point to an obvious solution?

No MIL on dash?

If not, sounds like the PPS has died completely, or the linkage has come apart, or the multiplug has come out!

Tim..

OK Tim, my ignorance of cars has now been exposed :-) I don't understand any of these terms: PPS, linkage, multiplug. Would any of these things have a partial failure mechanism that would cause the car to occasionally fail to start?